 Date
With Destinyby Alan Cohen A cynical man came to the mystic Nasrudin and challenged him, “If you can show me where God is, I will give you an orange.” Nasrudin thought for a moment and answered, “If you can show me where God is not, I will give you two oranges.” Do you believe God is willing to meet and guide you right where you are, and work wonders around and through you? At a weekend seminar I presented in Greece, an amiable gentleman named George invited me to lunch on the following day. I accepted, but when the time came, I felt as if an invisible hand was pressing against me, as if to say, “Do not go.” My strongest desire was to go to my hotel room and rest. I felt somewhat sheepish about canceling my appointment, but I decided to go with my instinct. I told George I needed quiet time, and suggested we might sit together that evening at a night club gala for the seminar participants. When I arrived at the night club I saved George a seat next to me, but he never filled it. Later that evening I discovered George sitting in a distant booth with a lovely woman. When I told him I had saved a seat for him, he laughed and explained he had a date with destiny. “This afternoon when we did not go to lunch together, I went to another restaurant with some of the seminar participants,” George recounted. “There I met Helen, and, as you can see, we really hit it off!” George and Helen smiled and toasted their champagne glasses to their meeting. I smiled as I made my way through the maze of tables, considering the miracle that had occurred. It was absolutely perfect, nothing less than divine guidance, that I felt moved to cancel my lunch with George. Even while guilt tugged at my heartstrings, I was assisting him to be in his right place to fulfill his heart’s desire. My encounter with George is not an isolated miracle. At every moment the voice of love is speaking to every heart, beaming guidance like a radio station that never goes off the air. A Course in Miracles tells us, “The voice of God is as loud as your willingness to listen.” The most exciting spiritual path I know is to practice moving with your joy instinct at every moment. When faced with any decision, simply feel inside yourself which alternative offers you the most aliveness. What would you really like to do? If you attended school at Our Lady of Perpetual Suffering, you may have been trained that you gain God Brownie Points by sacrificing your happiness and bearing the old rugged cross. But, as Dolly Parton suggested in the movie "Straight Talk," “Get off the cross, honey - somebody needs the wood.” There are a lot better things that God has in store for you than pain. God does not crucify us; we crucify ourselves. The word "sacrifice" means "to make sacred." Suffering is not sacred, but joy is. Do you have the guts to trust that God wants you to be happy and choose joy? In preparation for my recent Mastery Training, I was speaking to a prospective participant named Jerri who felt torn between using her few thousand dollars of savings for the seminar, or saving it in her retirement fund. “I really want to be in the seminar, but I’ve never really spent any money on myself,” Jerri confessed. “My life feels pretty small and my health is troubled.“ I suggested to Jerri that if she always did what she has always done, she would always get what she has always gotten. If she was unhappy with the life she had created, saving that money would not do her much good. I suggested she invest in herself and have some fun. Jerri conceded that the money was not really helping her if she was using it for self-protection, and she courageously agreed to adventure to Hawaii. At the Mastery Training Jerri skyrocketed in self-appreciation and underwent a profound transformation. On the evening of graduation, she announced she had phoned the airline and requested an upgrade to first class for her flight home — to the tune of an additional $842! Jerri had truly gotten the idea that life is for joy, and money is for celebration! When I later spoke to Jerri, she told me that she had enjoyed first class so much she stayed awake during the entire overnight flight, and she intended to find a way to fly first class from now on. Moreover, when she arrived home she discovered she had more funds available in the account she thought she had depleted! The Bible tells us, “Choose ye this day whom you will serve.” Faith or fear. Joy or pain. Celebration or apology. There is nothing blind about our date with destiny. ¤ |
